Belgian beer tunnel nears completion

Construction of a 3km long tunnel below the streets of Bruge in Belgium is set to cut congestion in the city as well as ease production processes for one its breweries.

The £3M project for the De Halve Maan brewery started out as a joke but work on the tunnel linking the brewery with its bottling plant is now nearing completion.

The tunnel will transport beer 3km from the brewery to the bottling plant

The remotely operated tunnel boring machine bored tunnel will carry almost 7,000litres at around 20km per hour at up to 30m below the streets of Bruge, reducing the traffic at street level.

Work on the pipeline started in December last year after plans for the scheme were initially mooted in 2010.

Brewery owner Xavier Vanneste part funding the project through crowdfunding where contributors earned the right to free beer through to commemorative glasses based on contribution level.

“At the moment our huge tankers have constantly to make their way through the narrow streets of Bruges,” said Vanneste. “That’s no longer sustainable. This beer pipeline means that we’ll be able to remain in the city.”

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